


Never Give a Trucker... Revisited

by LenoraLana



Category: The Incredible Hulk (TV)
Genre: episode rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 02:23:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21384526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LenoraLana/pseuds/LenoraLana
Summary: This is my attempt at a writing exercise to try and get a better “feel” for the characters in the Incredible Hulk TV show. I am basically rewriting one of the episodes. Much of it will remain the same, though there might be some changes, I’m unsure yet. I hope this doesn’t go against the rules of the website. ^^;
Relationships: None
Comments: 6
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

She gripped the steering wheel tightly as she drove down the road yet again, scanning left and right with an eagle eye for any sign of a phone booth she could use. This was actually her third drive through this area and, although the first two attempts to find anything along this stretch of road hadn’t yielded any results, she tried yet again.

“Come on,” she practically growled to herself at this point. “There’s gotta be  _ something _ out here.” 

There should have been, right? Surely there had to be a business with a pay phone phone close by, or even just a phone booth on the side of the road somewhere for emergencies… or possibly a house or small convenience store or  _ something _ where she could sweetly ask to use the phone, at least.

Yet there was absolutely nothing. It meant that those guys really knew what they were doing, hiding it all out here and staying out here themselves. Not only were they well secluded and too far away from the nearest town to attract notice, it would no doubt take the police time to get out here even if she  _ could _ find a phone to call them.

“Damn bastards,” she spat, no longer caring for the moment how unladylike that sounded. Though it was  _ because _ of those damn bastards that her Dad wasn’t even there to remind her of that.

Thinking of him and what those creeps did to him, to  _ both _ of them, made her grit her teeth and grip the steering wheel more tightly as she slammed the breaks and pulled the car around for yet another pass. 

As she began to proceed down the street yet again, for the fourth time, she reached for a pack of gum without taking her eyes off the road. She knew exactly where it was. She used a free hand to take out a stick, slipped it out of the wrapper with her thumb, and stuck it in her mouth. 

Chomping down on gum gave her something to do rather than keep gritting or grinding her molars. The last thing she needed right now was to worry about damaging her teeth and ending up in the dentist office once this was all over.

“Okay,” she told herself, “you gotta figure out something, girl. There’s just no phone along this stretch of road, and the coppers might not be much help to ya anyway. But you can’t waste too much time because they might move it. So whatcha gonna do now, huh?”

Apparently, a phone booth was not magically going to appear on the side of the road somewhere no matter how much she wished it. A police car was not going to appear out of thin air for her to flag down, either. In fact, the only constant she noticed during the last couple of times she’d gone up and down the same stretch of road was the same prospective hitch-hiker, who still hadn’t been picked up.

Well, a hitch-hiker wasn’t any use to her…

Or… 

Was he?

She deliberately drove past him, but she did look at him more closely as she passed by. There wasn’t much one could tell from looking at someone from a distance, but he at least appeared clean-shaven and decently dressed, carrying nothing but a duffle bag of some sort.

Well… he didn’t look like an axe-murderer or someone who would steal her car. Did she really have any choice?

Once she was out of visual range from him, she pulled over the car and reached into her purse. She quickly pulled out a piece of paper, a pen and an envelope to quickly but neatly scribble out a message she had been dying to spit into the face of those bastards for some time now. Then she sealed the envelope and put it in her pocket.

Before moving the car again, she gripped the steering wheel and bit down hard on the piece of gum. Now was the only time she could spare for second-thoughts. She had a plan, such as it was, but there was no guarantee it would work. 

What choice did she have?

She opened the car door long enough to spit her partially chewed gum outside in a very unladylike manner, ironically in the hopes of appearing a little more ladylike in front of the stranger when she picked him up. She shut the door and gave herself a quick glance over in the rearview mirror, smoothing her short honey-blonde hair a little with her fingers.

Then she pulled away from the side of the road and slammed the gas peddle, wincing as her tires screeched against the pavement. 

“Play it cool,” she murmured firmly under her breath. Once she was up to speed she slowed to a more casual pace; she didn’t need to make it look like she was eager to catch up with some hitch-hiker.

She soon found herself getting ready to pass the hitch-hiker yet again, this time conveniently on the same side of the road where he was walking, and from behind. It allowed her to get one last brief look at him as she passed him, without him noticing her scrutiny, then she pulled over on the side of the curb just a few yards from him.

She waited until he jogged up to the passenger side of the car, reminding herself to remain casual. Just be friendly, just act like you’re being nice.

“Hi,” she greeted him without a smile, taking a moment to give him another glance-over. Well, he didn’t look like he was going to beat her up or try anything...

“Hi,” he greeted in return. He had placed one hand on the passenger door, peering forward just enough to look her in the eye and talk to her.

Again, no signs of weapons or anything, and a small part of her appreciated him keeping at least one hand where she could see it. The other was no doubt holding his duffle bag. “Where are you headed?” she asked.

“North, Carson City,” he answered readily. A slight clicking confirmed that his unseen hand was on the door handle, though he was clearly checking with her first to see if she was headed that way or if she would agree to take him.

Well, he was at least gentlemanly enough to check first before getting into the car. He didn’t just let himself in and plop down or start making demands.

Yes, maybe this one could be used… And no, she wasn’t going to feel bad about it. Bad things had already been done to her and someone she cared about. Until this entire mess was settled, anything and anyone were fair game.

“I don’t usually do this,” she admitted, “but you look trustworthy. Hop in,” she flashed a smile.

He smiled appreciatively in return. “Thanks,” he acknowledged politely.

A twinge of guilt passed through her as she looked away from him and focused on the road. She pulled away and began to proceed forward at a moderate speed, not looking at him again as she ran the plan through her mind one more time.

A few seconds of silence passed between them as she tried to numb her insides and he appeared to get a little more settled in the passenger seat next to her. Yeah, this wasn’t something she normally did… at all. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

She really wanted to think she was still a decent person. She was, wasn’t she? It was just those creeps who were making her do this.

“I really appreciate the ride,” her passenger told her cordially. “It was getting pretty hot out there.”

“Oh, it always does this time of year,” she said conversationally. “Ah, you don’t live in Nevada,” she added, more as an observation than a question.

“No,” the man confirmed. He didn’t seem inclined to add any more details than that.

“You coming up from Vegas?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“What’s a guy like you doing hitch-hiking?” Why was she even asking him? Did it really make her feel better to get to know someone before throwing him to the wolves?

She could tell he wasn’t looking in her direction anymore; both of their eyes were glued to the road now. “I didn’t have money for a bus,” he told her simply with a light chuckle.

Well, that more or less seemed to fill in any missing details, at least for her. “That’s a good reason,” she nodded. “Vegas,” she shook her head, “does that to a lot of people.”

“Oh yeah,” he agreed a touch ruefully.

The wheels began to turn in her head again. A polite, seemingly well-mannered gentleman who’d used up every cent of his cash to get back to wherever he came from. Surely someone like that would be interested in some cash, right? Maybe he could even find a bus somewhere if he had a little money…

“You wanna make ten dollars?” She threw the question out there before she could stop herself.

He looked at her with a very bewildered expression. 

“My boyfriend,” she explained quickly, “he works at the warehouse up there and it’s his birthday today. I bought him this really funny birthday card and I thought it would be really terrific that if all his friends could be around to see his face when he opens it.”

That was it, just put on an act like this was something for a beloved family member’s birthday. That always enabled her to lie very smoothly and convincingly. 

“What? You mean you want me to deliver it?” The man still seemed a bit perplexed. Not surprising, it was a pretty weird job offer.

“Yeah, it sounds a little weird,” she said, “but I think it’ll be much funnier then if it were delivered by somebody that he didn’t know instead of me.”

“Well look, I’d be happy to deliver it for you,” he said, “you wouldn’t have to pay me.”

If this had been any other time, any other situation, she would have felt her throat constrict with guilt and called off the entire thing. But no, she couldn’t pull out now. She was already in too deep and this was her only chance to get back what was taken from her and her Dad.

“No, please, it would make me feel much better, honest,” she told him, somehow keeping her face locked into the same pleasant smile and act. 

Did it really make her feel better? Well, it didn’t matter.

He shrugged in a well-if-that’s-the-way-you-really-want-it-then-cool kind of way. “Okay,” he agreed.

“Oh, that’s great,” she said, relieved that he was going along with this. She forced herself to focus on the task at hand, remembering her Dad’s face right before he was taken to the hospital, the blood rage she’d felt when those thugs took everything from them, how helpless she felt…

If this was the only way she could infiltrate and fight back, so be it. She was just one woman and she didn’t have a lot of strength on her side.

“It’s only up here, about a mile or so,” she told him. 

She then took a deep breath and went on as smoothly as possible. “My boyfriend will be the man you’re looking for. He has dark hair and a moustache. Now, what I’d like you to do is make sure he knows not to open the card until his buddies are all gathered around. After he reads it, I’ll come over and give him a great big birthday kiss.”

A quick glance at him revealed that he was not only paying close attention to her instructions, she had his undivided attention while giving them. He was nodding slightly as he processed her words, a small smile forming on his face as he was, no doubt, picturing a warm and fuzzy thing happening that he himself would get to help bring together and make happen.

It was unfortunate that each of them were imagining two drastically different outcomes. Why did it have to be such a seemingly nice man she would end up throwing to the wolves?

Then again, her Dad didn’t deserve to get beaten up and left for dead, either. The only way to deal with wolves in this world sometimes was to throw an innocent lamb at them sometimes.

“Are you alright?” the man asked, making her realize her mind had wandered a tad. “You seem a little nervous.”

“Oh,” she replied smoothly, “I just want to make really sure this goes off without a hitch, you know?” She flashed another smile, forcing herself to loosen up and appear less stiff. “I mean, it seems like every single time I’ve tried to do something nice for his birthday, I’ve always ruined the surprise somehow. That’s why I asked for your help, you see? I’m just all jitters when it comes to this kind of thing and you seem like someone who can keep his cool in tense situations.”

He grunted softly, as if thoughtful. “Okay,” he said with a smile. “Rest assured,” he promised, “that your boyfriend will not suspect a thing until after he opens the card.”

“Thanks,” she nodded. He had spoken with such gentle sincerity she began to calm down a little and believe it herself. “We’re almost there,” she added, focusing intently on the road.

“Have you been together a long time?” the man asked conversationally.

The question took her a little off-guard, but she responded as smoothly as before. “Oh, not long at all, sometimes it feels like I only just met him. But I really love him, you know? He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Somehow she managed to get those words out like she really meant them, but it meant squeezing the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles hurt. 

The man, perhaps sensing something a tad off about her body language, eyed her carefully. “I thought you said you’ve been together a long time,” he said.

“Did I?”

“Yes, you said you wanted this birthday surprise to go flawlessly because every other birthday didn’t go quite the way you planned.”

“Oh, well, you know, it’s not just birthdays. It’s also the other holidays. I’ve known him for two years now and I couldn’t even get our anniversary right last month.” She flashed a sheepish grin. “You know how it is, men always forget the anniversary but I’m not one of those girls who complains about the man forgetting, so I thought I could surprise him and plan something nice for both of us with the help of my parents. But I couldn’t even do that right.”

Judging from his smile and the look he gave her, he seemed to accept her story and pretty much dismiss her tension, nervousness, and perhaps any discrepancies in her story as a result of just her wanting to get something right, just once. “I can assure you that I am good at acting,” he told her. “He won’t even know you’re there until you want him to.”

“Thanks, Mister,” she told him. “I’ll be able to relax once this is done.” That was certainly the truth. 

He gave a slight chuckle, obviously pegging her as a perfectionist who was putting way too much thought into something that didn’t need to be obsessed over or analyzed so much. “You almost make it sound like you’re planning something sinister.” His tone clearly meant it as a joke.

Her eyes remained glued to the road as her heart skipped a beat, but then she recovered smoothly. “Oh, I guess I’m just hoping he and his buddies will like the joke,” she said with a forced chuckle.

They rounded a bend and came up to an area that was fairly sizeable. A few cars could be seen in a nearby parking area within, while a different area was gated off with some kind of sign. “Well, this is it,” she said as she brought the car to a halt.

She shut off the engine and turned to him, reaching into her purse. “You sure you remember everything?” 

“Uh yeah,” the man said, glancing toward the floor momentarily as he recalled what he had been told, “I am to look for the man with dark hair and a moustache, and he’s not to open the card until everyone’s gathered around,” he recited smoothly. 

“Right,” she grinned, pulling a ten dollar bill and the card out of her purse. “And then I’m gonna come down and give him a great big birthday kiss. Here’s your ten dollars,” she held the slightly crumpled bill out to him and, after he took it, she handed him the note sealed in the envelope. 

“Hm, it’s a bit small for a card envelope,” he commented in an observationary way.

“Oh it was just one of those weird-shaped cards,” she told him. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure he’ll love it,” she grinned.

“Alright,” he said after a moment. 

“I really appreciate this,” she told him sincerely.

“Thank you,” the man returned her smile, letting himself out of the car. She watched him for a moment, until he was out of sight, then she gave the key in the ignition a hard turn and backed it up. 

She would need to park it somewhere out of sight, quickly, then basically ditch it. In a way it was a shame, but it was far less valuable than the prize she was really trying to reclaim. Maybe at some point she could return for the car, but at this point it was low on her priority list.

Once she had parked it just around the bend, out of sight but still close enough, she quickly rolled up the windows and locked it up. Then she jogged in the direction of the parking lot as quickly yet stealthily as she could, keeping her head down and crouching lower and lower as she felt she was getting closer to her mark. 

A quick glance around confirmed that her hitchhiker friend was, true to his word, doing exactly what she had asked him to do. He had located the man who fit the description she’d given him, one she had selected him to seek out only because that one had stuck in her memory the best, a face like that of a shady villain, and the rest of the men were already gathering around.

She drew in a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and made a beeline for the warehouse. It was now or never and, quite frankly, she just wanted to get out of there with her prize… and maybe avoid seeing that poor man get beat up. 


	2. Chapter 2

Her face nearly split with the widest grin of triumph she’d ever had in life as she sat at the helm of her stolen property. The familiar rumble somehow managed to both soothe and excite her as she began to drive the large truck forward, making her feel empowered.

For the first time since the creeps had gotten their hands on her Dad and the truck, she felt something other than helplessness. She knew she couldn’t afford to get cocky, but she was finally in a position to do something. She could take back what was hers and maybe reign a little vengeance upon those jerks.

She blared the horn as she proceeded forth, the roar of a dragon she had reclaimed. While there would be no eye-blinding smoke or scorching flames to heat their unsuspecting britches, she could still roll forward with the power and intensity of a charging elephant.

The small gathering of men that her hitchhiker had assembled stared with outrage and disbelief as she went straight toward them. For the moment, her acquaintance didn’t seem any worse for the wear, at least from a distant glance. She continued to move without stopping, fully prepared to mow some of them over if they didn’t move.

Most of the men ended up running in one direction while the hitchhiker split from them and went the other way, allowing her to continue moving straight ahead and between them. She was vaguely aware of her acquaintance attempting to run alongside the truck as she kept going; she was more focused on the road and keeping the rig under control. She was also more interested in putting as much space as possible between herself and the other men.

Somehow, the hitchhiker managed to grab hold of the passenger side of the truck and pull himself up to the open window. “What are you doing?” he demanded, stunned a perhaps more than a little mortified. 

She didn’t even glance in his direction as he pulled himself through the window and sort of half-slid, half-flopped forward like a dead fish into that side of the truck. If she had been watching him and if this had been any other situation, she might have found the sight hilarious. 

In this case, however, she was focused on her mark. She ignored the hitchhiker, having mentally registered him as a non-threat and some part of her feeling relieved he had managed to extract himself before getting beat up or worse… with a little help from her timely arrive, most likely.

“LOOK OUT!” the man beside her practically screamed as she neared a row of neatly parked cars. She ignored him, gritting her teeth and staying on-course as she moved the nose of the truck to initiate a collision. 

She managed to strike two of them by hitting the one that was parked out a bit further and banging it into the one right next to it, but it wasn’t enough. “Damn it!” she grated in frustration. “I missed one!” But it was too late to do anything about it now and she could only proceed forward.

She could sense the shock and outrage of the man next to her. She heard him spluttering, then no doubt his throat shut down to shock.

Once she finally pulled out onto the main road, she released a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “Are they coming?” she asked her passenger, knowing he had the luxury of looking everywhere but the road while she didn’t.

“I imagine they will be,” he replied firmly. 

“Yeah,” she concurred, sparing a hand momentarily to retrieve a stick of gum from the purse she had tossed on the floor near her feet. The fruity flavor filled her mouth as her chewing began to take the edge off of her nervous tension.

“Why did you steal their truck?” the man next to her demanded.

“I didn’t,” she shot back. “This is mine.”

“Yours?”

“Yeah, they stole it from me.”

“They stole it from you?”

She sighed in irritation. “I think there’s an echo in here.”

“I’m just trying to catch up, that’s all,” the man stated. Out of the corner of her eye, she could tell he was staring at her like he was half-questioning her sanity. 

“Yeah I know… let’s just hope  _ they _ don’t,” she said more quietly.

“...Yeah.” He looked out the window again, peering behind them. 

“My Dad and I put a lot into this rig, you know?” she began to expand, knowing he deserved some sort of explanation, especially at this point. The poor man was still holding his bag to his chest as if for dear life, after all. “I mean, we really souped up the engine and customized it. Then those jerks had to come and hijack us, big tough guys, you know?”

Her eyes tightened. “Four big guys, against one little old man?” she stated ruefully, once again feeling the anger build up inside of her at the mere thought of it. “They beat him up real bad. He’s in a hospital back in Reno. I was on my way back to Tonopah when I saw the truck. They’ve really done a number trying to disguise it, but I recognized it.”

The man next to her was still glaring at her, one eye tighter than the other, as he processed this information. She couldn’t blame him really, not after the way she’d lied to him when he took her ten dollars on good faith… and she had just admitted that she had knowingly tossed him to people who would do the same, if not worse, to what they’d done to her Dad.

She offered no apology. She wasn’t sorry. She had also been around enough to know when saying sorry wouldn’t really make up for anything or change things, either. Sure she felt bad in her own way, but she wasn’t going to say she was sorry.

Besides… she couldn’t be overly concerned with making nice or thinking about what someone else thought of her right now.

“Why didn’t you just go to the police?” he wanted to know. 

“I went back looking for a phone!” she snapped. “I couldn’t find one. I must have gone up and down that stretch of road five times trying to find a damn phone or someone I could turn to for help. And I was afraid of those guys would move the truck before I could find one.”

“Oh!” The man beside her breathed with realization. “So you used me a diversionary tactic?”

“Yeah.” Like that even needed to be said, especially at this point. But she’d be nothing if not direct and truthful.

“I would have called the police for you,” he said after a shake of his head.

“Look, Mister, I don’t trust anybody, you know? I’ve been tromped on too many times.”

“Don’t you think we’re the ones who are gonna get tromped on when they catch up with us?”

She made a face where she pressed her lips together and made sort of a half shrug, half head-shake. Maybe they were going to catch up. Maybe they wouldn’t. Right now… it was what it was.

“Wonderful…” The passenger said with feeling. He peered out the window again, and saw what he half-hoped he wouldn’t see. A vehicle speeding up the road, in their direction, from behind. Judging from the velocity, it clearly intended to catch up.

“You see one of them?” she asked.

“Yeah, and they’re catching up to us awfully fast,” the man warned.

She didn’t respond, keeping her eyes glued to the road and the rearview mirror. She saw the little red car coming, getting closer. No, she was not going to let them hijack her again. This time she knew they were out there and she wasn’t going to stop or let them pull anything off.

Using a bend in the road to her advantage, she swerved the vehicle in such a way that prevented that car behind her from getting around or trying to pull up to the side. Her rig might not have the advantage of speed or mobility, but she could use its size and bulk and make it bend to her will.

Once they reached a stretch of road that was entirely straight and no more bends, however, the pursuing car took advantage of the added width by pulling into the lane beside the truck and speeding forward. Thankfully, in this remote area, there were no cars coming from the opposite direction.

She took note of this, and quickly changed strategies.

“I think we’ve got ‘em now,” she stated with confidence as the car pulled out ahead of them.

Her passenger, who had been watching all of this with widened eyes, now went even more bug-eyed. “We’ve got them?”

“I’m gonna teach them to mess with me.”

“What?”

Both of their eyes were now fixated on the car ahead of them, each feeling different things. He felt a growing sense of apprehension, particularly when he thought he could see one of the men leaning out of the front window briefly with a gun. She merely focused on her task, getting them closer and closer, charging forward like a buffalo with a mission.

“I’m gonna teach them to mess with me!” she reiterated through gritted teeth, perhaps as a way to motivate herself to stay on course and not back down. She’d already come this far, it was time to teach those jerks a lesson.

Her hitchhiking friend couldn’t even find his voice enough to splutter this time. Well, he might be along for the ride, but he didn’t have to approve.

She grinned when she picked up the speed and managed to firmly bump the fender of the car from behind. She relished the feeling of, at long last, being able to whack them back in some way. She permitted her rig to pull back a tad, waiting for a better opportunity to strike again.

Then it came.

There was a convenient spot just up ahead to run them off the road. She charged ahead and, within a few seconds, struck them from behind and successfully sent them careening out of control into an area where they would be lucky if they could slow down in time to avoid damage, or worse.

She blared the horn with triumph as she once again moved forward, the queen of the highway, still grinning from ear to ear.

Beside her, the passenger seemed to be trying to settle his nerves. He gritted his teeth and made a moderate fist-swinging gesture in front of his own face for good measure, but otherwise seemed content to just sit there and scowl. 

It was times like this when it paid to be a girl, especially around a gentleman. He didn’t seem like the type who would hit people, but it appeared that he had reached the point where he would seriously consider giving her a fat lip if only she were a guy.

“Watch for a phone,” was all she said to him.

“Oh, I will,” he informed her ruefully.

She guffawed a little, a genuine release of tension and delight at having gotten her truck back and a slice of payback to boot. She continued to grin as she focused on her driving, maintaining a high speed until she was confident that they’d put a fair distance between themselves and their pursuers.

The man beside her visibly calmed down a bit once she slowed the vehicle to a point where they were no longer pushing ninety miles per hour. She began to relax a bit more herself when several checks in the rearview mirror and a few neck-craning looks out the window from her passenger assured them both that, for the moment anyway, they had succeeded in losing any and all potential attackers.

“I don’t see them,” she said after a little while. “Do you?” She already felt she knew the answer. If he had seen anything, he would have warned her because his life was in as much danger as hers was while they were in the same rig together. But it always helped settle the nerves further by confirming a desirable yet unspoken reality with mutually agreeing words.

“No.” He was still giving her those looks.

Well, he had no right to complain, right? He was still getting that free ride he wanted and, so far, both of them had survived all of this without a scratch. It was just more than a guy who’d blown his last penny in Vegas had bargained for when hitchhiking.

She figured he could use this as a lesson in the future. Watch what happens when you do something careless and go out on the road where it was dangerous. He was probably very lucky he still had his shirt.

“I bet they got dinged up real good on that fence,” she said with glee. “Serves them right, the creeps.”

“You handle this rig pretty well,” the man said, perhaps a note of admiration in his tone. He’d probably observed that if she hadn’t been that good, pulling the stunts she had pulled back there would have gotten them ‘dinged up’ rather good, too.

“You ought to see me downshift,” she replied thoughtfully. 

“Where did they hijack you, anyway?” Now that the danger had passed and he seemed less concerned that she was going to get him killed or cause something else to happen to him, his features had softened somewhat toward her. He seemed more curious to know about what was going on and what had been happening.

“About a hundred miles south of here.” 

“Did you have insurance?”

“Yeah. They pay up pretty good for accidents, but if it’s stolen…” She trailed off.

“You mean they wait a while to see if it will turn up?”

“A while? Yeah. Like, until maybe you’re too old to drive or you go bankrupt. My Dad and I couldn’t have held out anymore.” 

Particularly after they had blown the rest of their savings on getting the rig all dolled up. After her Mom had passed away, neither of them had anything left except that investment. They had been relying on the gas they were hauling to give them a moderate payday to at least make ends meet, hoping it would lead to other things and pay off more in the future. 

She wasn’t inclined to start spilling out those details, though. The last thing she wanted to get into was anything related to her Mom’s death or the depression it had sent her father into. The only thing that had gotten him out of that funk and away from the bottle was to convince him to focus on the rig. They’d decided that they had nothing to lose anymore and certain dreams her parents had planned to do during their retirement years together were never going to happen now.

So, why not channel their resources, money and time into something else that father and daughter could do together? It had put the spark of life back into her Dad and possibly given them a new direction. The dream home with a flower garden, a beagle and a white picket fence would never happen, but now they’d had the dream of spending a lot of time on the road and possibly seeing a lot more of the country they had never visited before.

All of that had changed when those assholes hijacked the truck and put her Dad in the hospital. Now it was entirely up to her to make things right and have everything ready for when her father got better and they let him out of the hospital. 

“What were you hauling?”

The voice of the man next to her once again brought her back to the present. “Gasoline,” she answered. “I could never figure out why anybody would want to steal ten thousand gallons of gas.” That was still a puzzlement to her. Why did her Dad deserve to be beaten up over that? What was so valuable about that that those jerks had to try and shatter their dreams?

“I mean, beer maybe, but gas?” She shrugged. Beer had been one of her father’s favorite guilty pleasures before she’d gotten him to stop. “For the same trouble, they could have stolen a truckload of something really expensive.”

“Maybe they wanted the truck,” her passenger theorized.

She thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, maybe,” she acknowledged, feeling it was a possibility. The truck itself was valuable, particularly to her and her father due to how much time, personal attention and money they had poured into it. But there had to be more to it, since random thugs wouldn’t have any interest in it for sentimentality as she and her Dad would.

“What for?” she mused aloud. The guy next to her seemed like a bright boy, maybe he would deduce something else. “I mean, a tankload of anything isn’t worth that much.”

“What?” Either he was ignorant in these matters and trying to process that information, or she had spoken too softly to be heard over the engine’s rumbling.

“A tankload of anything isn’t worth that much,” she reiterated. Maybe he just didn’t understand the logistics of how this kind of thing worked, particularly in the short term. If you really wanted to make money at this, you had to save a lot, drive a lot and haul a lot. You didn’t make a fast buck by hijacking one shipment.

“Well, they seem anxious to get it though,” he mused. “Don’t they?”

“They ain’t gonna.”

He shot her a ‘you sure about that?’ look.

“Oh,” she indicated to a spot ahead with her eyes. “Just what the doctor ordered, gas and a telephone.”

The man beside her grunted assent, apparently agreeing that is what a doctor would order if he had anything to say about it.

She wasted no time slowing down and pulling into the space ahead. It was somewhat dusty, having no concrete of pavement around the gas pump, though it looked fairly well-maintained and clean in of itself. 

A lone man with graying hair, clad in a simple attire of blue overalls and a blue cap over a light blue shirt, walked over to stand next to the gas pump as the giant brown truck came to a halt. “Hey there,” he greeted. 

His eyes widened when he saw her getting out of the driver’s seat and come around to greet him. “A mighty little lady to be driving such a big rig,” he said, sounding somewhere between surprised and impressed.

“Aw, and you’re a mighty cute fella to be hanging out so far from nowhere, pops,” she grinned. “Listen, do me a favor and fill this up with ten dollars worth of diesel.”

“Sure thing.”

“Uh, pardon me,” the passenger said as he climbed out of the truck, “do you have a pay phone around here?”

“Right inside there, but it’s broke,” the older man said. 

The younger man made a gesture of frustration as the woman’s face fell. “Where’s the next one?” she asked.

“At McHugh’s, five miles down,” the old man answered, preparing the nozzle to stick into the truck. “Been down there twice myself, trying to get a repairman to come and fix the one here. But the phone company here is the pits. I’ve been thinking of investing in a tin can and a piece of string.”

“I know what you mean,” the woman said empathically. If only she could have found one damn phone right when she needed it, it could have saved her a lot of trouble. Her father might not have even needed to be hospitalized for so long if he hadn’t lost so much blood… due to them being unable to call for help right when they needed it. There was only so much you could do when stranded on the road.

“This rig yours?” The old man asked curiously as he began to pump gas into the tank. There wasn’t much else to do but chit-chat while they waited for it to fill, after all. 

“It sure is,” she grinned. “It is, and it always will be.” Especially after those thugs were put behind bars for good… which would hopefully be sooner rather than later.

“Looks like it could use a wash!”

“It could use a lot more than that.” A new paint job, new registration plates, a few things to fix up some of the damage and put some of the customizations back in place… “I’ll get it back into shape.”

“What were you carrying?”

“To tell you the truth, I’m not sure.” 

As if on cue, she heard her acquaintance calling out. “Hey, what’s this?”

Her head snapped up to see him up on the top of the truck. She hadn’t even seen him go up there. “What’s what?” she asked. He appeared to be holding something… what was it? It appeared to be something shaped like a giant pot.

She immediately left the old man’s side to climb up on top of the track where the brown-haired man was. He seemed to be looking inside the truck now, having put something he had pulled out from under the top hatch aside. What had he discovered?

As she got closer, she noticed him picking up some kind of white, flat object from within. That certainly didn’t look like anything that belonged in her truck as part of her haul. What in the world had those jerks been up to?

“What’s that?” 

The former hitchhiker was holding it wide open for her to see, aiming it in her direction after getting a good look at it himself. “A very expensive computer component,” he told her. He had the look of someone who had not only seen such a thing himself, but possibly touched one before.

“A computer component?” Now it was her turn to get flabberghasted for once. She peered into the truck to see more of them. It appeared that her truck was completely full of them.

Twin pieces of white styrofoam held the component in his hand, which he pieced back together after they’d both had a good look. The inside of the truck was filled with more of these, each component protectively concealed in identical pieces of styrofoam with brown tape hold them together.

“I bet they were gonna fill this full of gasolene and put it back in here so if anyone looked in…” He began.

“They’d just think it was full of gas!”

“That’s right.”

She shook her head with disbelief. “I remember hearing about a guy who was carrying those things last week. He got hijacked and his truck just disappeared.”

“Really?” That piece of information seemed to interest him greatly. “Well,” he continued theorizing, “maybe they used your gasolene to burn it up. I think you ought to make that phone call now,” he gestured the item in his hand for emphasis.

“I think you’re right,” she replied gravely. 

He went to work putting everything back on top the way he’d found it while she climbed down and paid the old man for the gas. She then hopped back into the driver’s seat of the truck just as her friend--yes, she supposed she considered him a friend now, at least somewhat--climbed down from the top to step up beside the cab section.

“You want me to go with you?” he offered. 

“No,” she shook her head, “it’s okay.” She had already put him through a lot. She really couldn’t ask him to do any more for her, especially since he’d already given her everything that she needed and helped her put the pieces together. He was really fortunate that he wasn’t dead because of her right now and she couldn’t willfully ask him to stick his neck out for her again.

“Hey listen, I’m really sorry you got hassled,” she added quickly. Yes… he definitely deserved an apology, especially now. She smiled when it seemed he was alright with it. If he had been angry before, apparently he was over it now. “Hey, I don’t even know your name.” 

“David.”

“I’m Joanie.”

“Hi.”

“Hi.” She let their formal introduction hang between them for a moment. “Bye.” 

“Bye,” David chuckled. “Oh, my bag.” He reached out toward her as she handed it to him, grasping it easily and reclaiming it. 

“Take it easy.”

“Drive carefully.”

Without a further word between them, she started up the engine as he shut the door and took a step back. He tucked his bag under his arm and waited until the rig finished moving out of the way, then he stepped forward. 

His first order of business, now that that was over, was to quench his thirst. He’d already been out walking in the sun for a while before this crazy adventure began, and his parched throat was making itself known.

Thankfully, he had change for a soft drink and he was going to get one.


End file.
